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0)with regard to heaven and hell, as a teenager i thought dante's divine comedy could be harmonized with the concept of reincarnation if one saw this world in which we live in [to the extent we do live in it - 'people don't die or live, people just float' - and also 'THIS is the future - you got to LIVE it or live WITH IT'] as purgatory

0.2)i was intruigued to read one buddhist teacher's perspective on recollections of past lives - yes, he supposes, people do sometimes recall past lives, maybe even recall them instead of just imagining them [reading the akashic record, one might say] - but these are not their past lives, as there is no "self" that reincarnates - it's a past life, not your past life

1)with regard to poems by james tate, here's one i read to missus charley yesterday -

The Memories of Fish

Stanley took a day off from the officeand spent the whole day talking to fish inhis aquarium. To the little catfish scuttlingalong the bottom he said, “Vacuum that scum,boy. Suck it up. That’s your job.” The skinnypencil fish swam by and he said, “Scribble,scribble, scribble. Write me a novel, needle-nose.” The angel executed a particularlymasterful left turn and Stanley said, “You’reno angel, but you sure can drive.” Then he brokefor lunch and made himself a tuna fish sandwich,the irony of which did not escape him. Oh no,he wallowed in it, savoring every bite. Thenhe returned to his chair in front of the aquarium.A swarm of tiny neons amused him. “What do youthink this is, Times Square!” he shouted. Andso it went long into the night. The next morningStanley was horribly embarrassed by his behaviorand he apologized to the fish several times,but they never really forgave him. He had mockedtheir very fishiness, and for this there can beno forgiveness.

– from Return to the City of White Donkeys by James Tate, published by Ecco Press, 2005.

1.5)joshua cooper writes of this poem

it demonstrates a wonderful blend of tragedy and comedy so often evident in his poems. I also enjoy the poem’s enjambment and hidden technical aspects, such as its use of sonic elements (alliteration, assonance, internal rhyme, etc.). They’re subtle; they don’t jolt you out of the poem, yet they’re still doing a great deal of work to pace the poem and its reader.

1.6)i looked up enjambment

(in verse) the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza

1.7 this morning as i watched the talking heads discuss mitt romney's op-ed about trump's character, i heard more than one person suppose that mitt is now getting even for the humiliation he was put through as he attempted to become trump's secretary of state - like stanley's fish, he has not forgiven